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New police reporting systems means better data on dooring

After police said tracking stopped in 2012, police Chief Bill Blair said that data collection never stopped.

Cyclists in Toronto often find negotiating their way between parked and moving vehicles hazardous, and the hazard that comes with little warning is an opening car door - raising the dreaded prospect of a 'dooring,' also known as the 'door prize.' (Rene Johnston / Toronto Star File photo)

A new system that started last month allows for specific reporting of cyclists colliding with open car doors — known as dooring — police said Thursday.

In August, the police board asked Chief Bill Blair to look at the feasibility of tracking dooring after an earlier Star report highlighted the lack of accessible data. Now a new records-management system that rolled out Nov. 5 will allow police to track the number of dooring incidents across the city, police said.

In 2012, the province changed the definition of a collision into one that excluded dooring because the car is stationary.

Blair said even though dooring is no longer considered a collision, and is not reported as such, those incidents were still being recorded.

“We’ve always maintained the ability to record those events,” Blair said. “It can’t be recorded as a collision . . . but it’s still recorded in our information system, still investigated and where an offence has been committed we’ll still enforce the law.”

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Traffic services spokesperson Const. Clint Stibbe said if a dooring event is reported to police, it is still recorded in a standardized incident report.

But until November, it was difficult to collect dooring information because there was no way uniform way for officers to classify the event as a dooring incident, Stibbe said.

A category to mark an incident as “dooring” has now been added, making it easy for police to track the number and location of incidents, Stibbe said.

“The collection of this type of data will assist with developing strategies for focused education and enforcement initiatives as needed,” the chief’s report to the board reads.

Information on dooring still won’t be readily accessible to the public, but can be requested under the municipal freedom of information act, both Blair and Stibbe said.

Cycling advocates have argued it is difficult to know whether there are problem areas in the city without data on dooring — prompting at least one web developer to start a website crowd-sourcing that information.

Cycle Toronto spokesperson Jared Kolb said the ability to track dooring is an important first step to improving safety for cyclists.

“For us to be able to properly deal with the issue of dooring we really need to know how many people are being doored,” Kolb said. “We need to know hot spots. We need to know dangerous streets, intersections. It all helps towards creating an action plan to reducing dooring.”

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